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He’s achieved an incredible surge of popularity and success in the bluegrass, jamband, and live music world these past few years, and he’d probably be the first to tell you he owes a lot of it to his childhood exposure to pickin’, courtesy of his dad Terry Barber. So he decided to record a duet album with him! Also present is an all-star band including bassist Mike Bub, mandolinist Ron McCoury, banjo player Rob McCoury and fiddler Michael Cleveland as well as special guest appearances by Jerry Douglas, Jason Carter and Strings’ mother, Debra Barber.

Check out these hints of what’s to come this winter and spring with these brand-new singles we’ve recently received. Darren Nicholson, former mandolinist with Balsam Range, has a new song he co-wrote with Charles Humphrey II, out this week courtesy of Crossroads/Mountain Home Music Company in Arden. Nickel Creek has unveiled “Strangers”, from a March 24th album called Celebrants, their first in 9 years! And the one and only Van Morrison has a new album coming out March 10th called Moving On Skiffle, a nod to the blend of blues, ragtime, and folk that was wildly popular in the UK in the ‘50s with young fans including Van and the Liverpool lads that later became The Beatles.

Perhaps ALL of us are brave in one way or another. And we’re featuring musicians throughout Black History Month that reflect upon the bravery of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other Black leaders. But Ponder was brave enough to leave her successful day job working in the public defender’s office in her hometown of Rochester, NY to devote herself full-time to sharing her powerful singing voice with the world. Her debut album blends R&B, blues, pop, moody trip-hop, and above all, that powerful voice. She recently performed in Asheville to great acclaim; keep your eye on this great one!

We enjoyed getting to know this Canadian singer-songwriter and her impressively expressive voice and mature songs a few years ago when she visited WNCW for a live interview. This is her 3rd release, produced this time by Tom Berg (who has produced for Paul McCartney and Phoebe Bridgers.) As Clyde describes, “The whole album is an exploration and expression of self, patterns in the natural and unnatural world, connecting to nature, the turning wheel of life, shedding old selves, embracing new selves, and the ever changing, expanding and contracting nature of love and life.”

The innovative, genre-expanding Bluegrass band from Colorado and beyond has followed up their Top 100 album “Toward the Fray”, and a tribute to Bill Monroe before that, with this one that hits close to home! “The concept of paying tribute to the Grandfathers or originators of Bluegrass is one we bounced around for a while, and after Bill Monroe, the most logical, I think any bluegrass musician would agree, is Flatt & Scruggs,” says Stringdusters bassist (and Brevard resident) Travis Book. “They're legendary, and without (Flint Hill native) Earl's banjo, Bluegrass just doesn't exist the way we know it today.”

We loved the work of the Dallas, Texas country band Eleven Hundred Springs back in the early ‘00s, and were sad to learn they broke up in 2021. But much of that band’s greatness can be heard on this solo release from frontman Matt Hillyer, which he actually started working on back in 2020. Pedal steel guitar legend Lloyd Maines is featured here, and it was produced by John Pedigo, who has worked with Old 97’s and Joshua Ray Walker.

This one is new this month, right on time for our Mardi Gras day-long parade. Says Delfeayo, “We play with the feeling of an R&B group, but add the rich harmonies and textures that you can only get from a larger band. It’s the only collection of modern big band versions of Mardi Gras music to date, so we want folks to feel like they’re in the streets with us catching beads and doubloons.”

Producer Scrappy Jud Newcomb and singer/songwriter Slaid Cleaves teamed up for the third time in early 2022 between Covid surges to record a new batch of songs, Slaid’s first in five years. Familiar themes of struggle and resilience will be a surprise to no one. But as Scrappy puts it, “This album speaks to the hopeful, the hard working, the battered, confused, and the sad. But above all to the believers in the city of freedom that we heard in the stories of our youth and all those FM radio hits.” Rolling Stone describes why we love Slaid: “A master storyteller, one influenced not by the shine of pop culture but by the dirt of real life.”

Recorded December 15th, 2012 at New Jersey’s Prudential Centre in Newark, New Jersey, this new release (available as of February 10th) caught the Stones in one of their most dynamic and memorable concerts in their 50+ year history. They rolled through a bunch of favorites, (plus a nice cover for your Valentine’s Day: “Who Do You Love?”) with guests including The Black Keys, Gary Clark Jr, Lady Gaga, John Mayer, Bruce Springsteen & Mick Taylor.

Acoustic punk meets country blues on this new one from Sunny War, which confronts some intense emotions and crises head-on – a breakup, the death of her dad, addiction, severe depression… But music seems to have literally saved her life, and this collection promises not just healing so much as resilience and perseverance.